"Applications for allotment of 43 schedule II and III coal mines/blocks are under evaluation," a Coal Ministry official said.

In the race to grab these are 29 applicants including SAIL, NTPC, Neyveli Lignite, Singareni Collieries, Goa Industrial Corporation and electricity undertakings of states like Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Haryana Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab among others, the official said.

Mines under production fall under schedule II category while those ready-to-produce fall under schedule III category.

Meetings with chief secretaries of concerned states are also on in order to facilitate smooth transfer of rights and title etc. in these coal mine to successful allottees, he added.

Coal Secretary Anil Swarup had earlier this month said 107 applications were received from various applicants for 43 coal blocks.

The Palma Gare Palma Sector II mine in Chhattisgarh has got nine applications,the highest for a single block.

The companies which have applied for Gare Palma II mine in Chhattisgarh, include NTPC, Singareni Collieries Company Ltd, Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation and Gujarat State Electricity Corporation.

The coal block was earlier alloted to Maharashtra State Power Generation Co and Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board.

The government had earlier invited applications for 36 coal blocks for allotment but later decided to add more mines and is allotting 43 mines to PSUs.

Of the 43 mines, 42 are for power sector and one is for steel sector.

Meanwhile, the government has reconstituted the high level inter-ministerial panel with slight modifications to ensure smooth auction and allotment of 204 cancelled coal blocks.

The nine-member Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary Coal has members from the ministries like power, steel and law.

The inter ministerial committee apart from ensuring smooth allocations will also interact with the industry stakeholders, industry chambers like Ficci, CII, Coal Producer Association, Steel Manufacturer Association, Cement Producers Association etc in order to ascertain their views on the procedure and methodology of auction of coal block.

The panel will also advise on "any other issue referred by the Ministry of Coal in connection with coal block allocations".

Over Rs two lakh crore is estimated to have been fetched from the auction of 32 coal blocks so far.

The auction was necessitated after the Supreme Court had in September last year quashed allocation of 204 coal blocks alloted to various companies since 1993.